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This article examines several of the major issues Public International Air Law likely will confront during this century, including revisions of the Chicago Convention, aerospace transport, unmanned aerial systems, aviation security, competition, cabotage and foreign ownership, safety and environmental issues.

Before filing suit, plaintiffs’ attorneys engage in a Conflicts of Laws analysis to find the jurisdiction with the most sympathetic law, and most likely to result in the largest possible judgment for their clients. Juries in the United States are perceived to be the most generous in awarding judgments; hence, aviation suits often are filed in U.S. courts, even when they involve injuries and death of foreign citizens on an aircraft flown by a foreign air carrier and crew that crashed into foreign soil. The concept of forum non conveniens remains among the most useful tools for defendants seeking to remove the case to a less generous jurisdiction.

The article provides a comprehensive outline and comparative analysis of national space statutes that have been adopted by various space-faring States around the world. The article identifies several common components of national space law, such as provisions dealing with licensing, registration of space objects and third party liability insurance. It concludes by noting that national space laws are an important means not only to regulate space activities to ensure the protection of a State’s citizens from damage or injury, but also to limit the burden of exposure to risks so as to foster the development of private space activities.

This paper examines the jurisdictional reach of the Montreal Convention of 1999 to aircraft manufacturers.

This paper examines the liability of airline employees for acts taken against unruly passengers under the Tokyo Convention of 1961.

The United States has been a major participant in space exploration and use. Its policies have helped shape the development of international law on the subject. Its domestic laws also provide a framework for the use of space by the private sector.

The Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944 accomplished two purposes. First, it established certain principles of substantive public international law. Second, it established an international organization - ICAO - and vested it with jurisdiction to accomplish certain objectives, and prescribed the procedures to govern the exercise of its jurisdiction.

Many, if not most, nations of the world community routinely comply with the vast majority of their international legal obligations in the commercial arena despite the absence of formal mandatory judicial-decisional and police-enforcement mechanisms for compelling compliance. They may be motivated by reciprocity or enlightened self-interest in preserving order, stability and predictability in their economic affairs in our increasingly interdependent global trading system. Even in the absence of an explicit threat, the mere possibility of reciprocal noncompliance or retaliation often has the significant prophylactic effect of encouraging nations to continue their good faith compliance with obligations imposed by a treaty from which they derive significant commercial benefits.